Hunter and Renegade
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: A mysterious stranger shows up in this AU. He's got his own reasons and plans... and Robin had better be careful, because the most dangerous things can be the truth.


Witch Hunter and Renegade

-

Robin Sena seemingly glided into into Harry's, giving a small nod and smile of greeting to Master, the older gentleman behind the bar of the almost deserted restaurant. It was a frequent hang out for the members of the STN-J, the organization for hunting 'witches' in Japan. And she found that she liked the quiet restaurant. She took a quick moment to setting her old fashioned dress for a second. The black and gray dress was quite modest, leaving only her hands and head visible, but did nothing to hide the fact that she was still a young woman of fifteen. Her dirty blonde hair was gathered up into tied-up ponytails on her head, while her deep blue-green eyes seemed to be always watching things.

She was quietly sipping tea when the strangest young man walked in, seemingly looking around at the most unusual place on pillars... if you weren't a Craft. Unusual patterns were a norm here at Harry's, things that looked vaguely European with a slight, mystical bent if you knew. Robin tensed as she wondered... was this a witch? His black hair was long and shaggy, while his eyes on his non-Japanese features were startling green. He seemed to have a pasty pallor to his olive toned skin. His clothing looked comfortably well worn and he had a fancy, but worn, backpack on his shoulder.

He then shrugged and sat down in the corner and started to puzzle out the menu that Mr. Kobari handed him. Robin watched him from the corner of her eyes, mostly taking in the sunny day outside. She frowned as she realized that he knew far less Japanese than she did, his accent very thick... and unknown.

"So what's up, Robin?" Doujima asked as she slipped into one of the bar stools. The superficial blonde was smiling a warm greeting.

"Umm. A new person. In the corner. He's strange." The hunter's blue eyes looked disturbed.

The blonde looked over casually. "Doesn't seem like much. Can't say I can place that accent."

"His clothing... doesn't match." The young pyrotechnic had thought the stranger's loose traveling clothing had looked positively strange, with pouches and a dagger on his belt. Who carried a dagger these days? And unusual jewelry, far more than most men would ever wear these days. A metallic headband, amulet and several gaudy rings

"Does seem like a weirdo!" the laid-back hunter said. "But I doubt he's a witch."

"I don't know," Robin replied truthfully. Something about him was unnerving.

The two hunters of STN-J spent a quiet half an hour eating their lunch. Robin frowned when he overpaid with bills, as it looked like he was very unfamiliar with the monetary system.

"I wonder," she said to herself.

-

"The target is fleeing down an alley," Amon said over the headset. He was chasing down a minor witch, a hydrokinetic. The witch had quickly discovered that his powers did not work on the hunter, thanks to the ORBO in his medallion. His black trench coat was billowing behind the tall, serious hunter, his high-tech looking gun in his hand. The back alleys of downtown Tokyo at night were there normal, depressing backdrop for this witch-hunt.

Amon stopped to peak around the corner, pulling back just in time for a stream of water to hit the brick wall hard enough to crack it. He feinted popping out from cover and while the witch was preparing to lash out again, he snapped off several shots of his custom STN-J pistol. The special ORBO plastic rounds impacted the witch, throwing him back against the wall, covered in glowing, greenish splatters.

"Hmm," a man said from a dark corner of the alleyway.

Amon whipped around, his gun tracking the hidden figure. "Who's there?" He really wished he had a partner that he could trust at this point.

The figure raised his hands. "No harm!" he said in broken Japanese.

"You should leave," the hunter said coldly. He still had his gun pointed at the strange, young man. That man slowly sidled out of the alley.

Just a few moments later, hazmat-clad men from the Factory showed up to take charge of the witch. Amon frowned. He hadn't heard them confronting the person he just forced to leave, but the Factory truck was just down the alleyway... in the only exit. Either that kid was faster than he thought or he had hidden somehow. The technicians from the Factory started loading the witch into the containment life support module, where he would be taken in for processing.

Over a hundred feet up above, the young man watch the situation with cold green eyes. "So it seems there is a _Way_ in this world. Crippled and weak as it seems," he said in an alien tongue.

-

"What do we have on this person?" Amon asked. It was a grainy photo printout from his hunt last night. He stood at one end of the small, double row of desks where the STN-J agents did their paper and computer work.

Michael Lee looked up as he popped the ear-buds of his music player. "That kid? Nothing. Just like I said last night." The young hacker seemed perturbed about being disturbed.

"The man from Harry's place," Robin noted aloud.

Yurika Doujima nodded. "Yup, that's the weirdo. Why? Is he a witch?"

Amon frowned. "I am not sure. He's been nosing around?"

"He was eating," Robin noted, a small smile on her lips.

Sakaki rolled his eyes theatrically. "Because that's so strange to do at a restaurant, Robin." The eighteen year old hunter was always a bit animated to gain attention.

"Umm," she murmured softly in reply, looking discomfited by his barbed comment.

Karasuma looked at the simple picture. "What made him stick out in your eyes?"

"Clothes. And his dagger," Robin replied truthfully.

Doujima nodded. She was the picture of the useless office lady, buffing her fingernails. "Yeah, it's not many people walk around Tokyo with a medieval dagger and pouches. His clothing-style was just plain strange." It was like fantasy wear. Well, _functional_ fantasy clothing, now that she thought of it.

"That must be it. And you weren't able to find anything, Michael?" Amon asked. There was something about his features that struck him oddly. Not just foreigner, but some unknown foreigner.

Michael was busy tapping away on his keyboard, pulling up database upon database. "This is really strange. The STN-J database is totally devoid of this fellow and I just checked back the last several years back through immigration. He's a total blank. It's like he just appeared out of thin air." Lights were flashing from the light projectors up above the display table with its angled screens.

Amon frowned slightly at that. Did that mean this was an agent of someone able to bypass immigration?

That was when Chief Kosaka entered the room. "What is everyone doing? This isn't the witch that headquarters assigned us to hunt!"

The stoic lead hunter stood up. "I think we should investigate both of them, Chief Kosaka. There's something about this guy that worries me."

-

Robin stood in the shadows of the alley almost a week later. It had been exciting, but Amon had been berating her lack of control on her powers. Even so, she had managed to help capture that witch. And the glasses were starting to help

And now, they were looking to capture the strange, foreigner witch. His dark hair and emerald eyes hinted at danger, though all he'd done in the last few days was visit libraries. His language skills were growing fast. It was also very obvious that he was searching for someone or something.

Amon stepped out of the shadows behind the man, calling out, "Halt!"

"You again?" the stranger asked, turning to look at the overly serious agent. "Is a problem?" He looked slightly startled.

"Give up quietly, witch!" Amon called out, his voice hard as chipped ice.

"Not a witch. I think." His voice and accent were rough, even as he crouched slightly. "No contract with demons!"

Robin gasped. Such a heresy. She saw his green eyes glance over towards her, giving Amon a momentary distraction. A distraction that did not work nearly as well as he'd hoped, as the ORBO bullets bounced off an invisible force between them.

This must be his craft, a form of telekinesis, she decided. Her eyes reflected a burst of flames that nearly hit him, startling the young man.

Which still didn't help Amon, as his bullets were still being deflected.

"Pyrokinetic. Interesting." He glanced around, obviously not liking this situation. He suddenly dashed past Robin, eyes meeting her own at only inches. Then he was past her and around the corner.

Robin heard a muted snap even as she started after him. But the alley he had entered was empty, stretching over a hundred feet with only a few bits of rubbish for cover. "How?"

_'That will have to wait until later, when we are closer friends. Though if we truly become enemies, you will have to find out my abilities the hard way,'_ his voice suddenly said to her in pure thought. _'I would hope that we don't have to become enemies, but that may be foreordained. Know this, I am a vindictive enemy, that shows little mercy. I had been following the laws of you country. Why did you attack me?'_

"Witch," Robin murmured.

_'Like I mentioned, I am not a witch. While I have powers, they are formed in my mind, by my _Way. _Your people term them esper or psychic, though those are far too limiting and laughable to describe myself.'_

"How are you doing this? Where are you?" the hunter asked, even as Amon walked passed her.

_'You don't have telepaths? No, I would guess that you have just never met a telepath of any worth. What a strange world. But getting captured by you and your people is not on my plan this day. If you want to talk to me about powers without any fighting, come alone. I'll even promise you that I won't hurt you if you don't attack me.'_

"Why?" she asked the air, even as Amon walked back from the end of the alley.

_'It would be interesting. And that is enough, some times.'_

"How did he get away? And 'why' what?" he asked.

"He was talking to me... telepathically. He was upset that we attacked him for no good reason. He said he followed the laws of Japan," Robin explained. Was he on the roofs? But how had he gotten up six flights that quick?

"He's dangerous." Amon safetied his gun. "That's enough."

Robin was not so sure. Perhaps he only had the shield, which is why he ran. But no, that could not be right, as he was telepathic, too.

-

Men in combat armor that was all black moved down the alley towards the back door of a very cheap hotel in Tokyo, that very same night. They were intent on the person in the second floor. He had obviously gone to bed. An auto-lock picker opened the door quickly, but if someone had been watching closely they would have noted a lumpy crystal roll out of the window and under the curtain.

The combat team from the Factory was getting their first field test against a witch that STN-J hunters had failed to bag. This would be a vindication of their training and equipment. ORBO packs glowed greenish on their chest, even as they strode past closed doors. The lead soldier counted down from three and then kicked open the door.

Instantly, he and two other Factory soldiers unloaded their guns into the bed, splattering it with plastic ORBO bullets until they realized that there was no one in the bed.

The lead soldier's ORBO pack suddenly glowed red in reaction. "A Craft!" he cried, looking around. He finally spotted the target, standing just behind the bathroom doorway, a strange spear of black-iridescent crystal in his hand.

The witch started swearing, even as he held up his left hand forward. Tendrils of wet smoke streamed from his fingers until they suddenly exploded outward in shards of crystal in a shotgun effect. Screams erupted from the five men caught in the effect.

The sixth man of the team backed up, even while letting the second squad know what was happening. So he was surprised when a large crystal was held out at the top of the door just as the second squad came in the front door, down the hallway fifty feat away.

That was when the target stepped out into the hallway, putting his back to the lone soldier from the first attack. His left hand was held up with intense concentration and then he abruptly released a stream of lightning towards the second squad of six that was blinding and deafening. Their ORBO reacted, trying to block the energies, but only the last soldier was totally unscathed. The other five were left charred and burnt by the electricity.

Chuffing sounds came from the semi-automatic gun behind the witch, firing ORBO rounds into the target's back, sending him reeling and collapsing. His spear clattered to the side.

"Target is down! I repeat, target is down!" shouted the closer Factory soldier.

"God damn about time! What the hell sort of craft allows him to do all that?" the second soldier asked.

They both winced as their controller on the other side of the radio yelled at them for a minute. The first soldier walked over to flip the target over. The man wasn't fully unconscious.

That was when the witche's hand reached out and grabbed his ankle with viper-quickness. The soldier's ORBO container turned a sudden, brilliant red, illuminating the hallway before wounds sprouted bloodily all over the soldier's body.

The 'witch' then suddenly rolled into his room and out of the hallway.

"Target is up! Target is _active, dammit!_" the final soldier screamed. He backed up quickly, running back towards the front door. He trotted quickly to the factory truck and opened up the right door. He was seated down quickly, engine revving when the front of the vehicle crumpled as a huge crystal impaled it to the ground.

"How the hell did he do that?" the final soldier asked, even as he reloaded his MP-5. The trucks were supposed to be immune to witchery due to all the ORBO in the frame kits. He almost flew back out of the truck, his gun pointed at the doorway to the hotel... which was totally empty. His ORBO suddenly flared bloody red, just before his muscles locked up.

Off to his side, the target walked down the wall as if it were level ground, rather than a sheer face.

"Now... let's see what's in your head. I so rarely get to use my telepathy so... _actively_," the witch said in a low, menacing voice as he walked across the ground.

Just minutes later, when the police arrive, they found only a dead, drooling, _desiccated_ body and what appeared to be a paintball war zone. None of which made any sense.

-

Mr. Takuma Zaizen looked over his desk at Chief Inspector Kosaka. "I want everything we have on this new witch. It has absolute priority," Zaizen said, his eyes cold and flinty. He clipped the end of his cigar and then lit it.

"Of course, Mr. Zaizen. We do have some questions about the other assault team. Their information could be very useful in determining-"

"They were merely a training team, to see if they can supplement your own STN-J team of hunters. I figured they would be a good gauge going against a tough foe that our own hunters failed to defeat," Zaizen smoothly interrupted. "We must always look to expand our training and recruitment. I _was_ hoping that they would prove to be possible recruits into an expanded STN-J team." He shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, this will be a major set back in that program. I want this witch captured, Kosaka. It is an _absolute_ priority."

"Yes sir." Kosaka bowed, his large, gleaming forehead was glistening due to his sweat. It was obvious that Zaizen had not planned for the witch to escape nor did he want to talk about this team from the Factory.

-

Amon glanced left or right before crossing the police-tape line that was outside the hotel. Officers were keeping back a small crowd of onlookers. "Let me do the talking, Robin." He barely glanced over to see her small nod of acknowledgement. "Detective? What happened here?"

The police detective frowned, but his frown decreased when he recognized the hunter. "What happened is that some fancy-pants _hunters_ got themselves killed by their targets. This glass door is melted, but it looks like electricity arced through it. The five slobs that burst in his door got themselves filleted by blades of some sort. They bled to death in just about a minute, the medic thinks. One guy has deep bruises, cuts and shattered bones... under his armor. And then there's the final guy. The medics swear he's been dead for weeks in a dry region, but he was outside on _top_ of the glass from the blown out window. The poor schmucks never had a chance."

The veteran hunter frowned. "How many people were in the room?"

"The hotel manager says there was only the one, goofy guy in some sort of fantasy garb. Get this, he originally paid for his room in silver coins. Some sort of foreigner, but all on his own. Just went out to eat and the library at times. A real fruit cake, I guess."

"A dangerous one, if he did all this on his own." Amon would not look at Robin's face, but he could see her serious look as she slowly knelt down next to the corpse that looked ages old.

"We did get the recording from the camera, but it only shows the one guy outside here," the detective said, waving his hand at the broken truck.

Karasuma stepped under the police tape, Sakaki and Doujima at her back. She carefully took her glove off and lightly touched the mummified corpse as she reached out with her telemprathetic sense. Her gasp was heard by everyone nearby. "So much fear. He gave up his secrets."

"Michael? Do we have a reading on the witch?" Amon asked through his headphone as he held up his hand terminal, which looked like a high tech scanner with palm pilot functions.

"No. There's some weird interference, so he's off our net now. I'm not sure how he knows how to do that, but from what the guys at the Factory are giving me, he headed into the sewers. Enough mass will block pretty much anything, you know." The hacker continued tapping at his keyboard back at STN-J, pulling up schematics. "I really don't suggest that you go down there. You'll be out of contact with me and probably just get lost."

Doujima frowned cutely as she went over what they'd learn. "The library, huh? I think we should check that out tomorrow. See what he's reading."

None of them would have noticed the lump of crystal watching over the scene. It was small, dull and up on roof of the building next door. After the hunters started leaving though, its spindly legs of wet smoke carefully lifted it up. It's movements were slow and subtle, making sure to gather no attention.

-

Robin opened the door to her apartment. "Touko? Are you there?" She must be in bed, Robin decided. All the lights were out. She fixed herself a small snack, then went up to her room to bed.

She suddenly awoke, hours later in the pre-dawn light. Something was going to happen. Something was... here?

_'Well if the sleeping beauty hasn't awakened!' _the metal voice said.

Robin gasped even as her blue-green eyes tried to pierce the darkness of the room.

_'A little more quietly, please. I want to have a nice, undisturbed talk with you. So any shouts that will wake up your dorm mate will have very unpleasant repercussions... for her. But if you are nice and quiet, we can converse so much more easily.'_ She could almost feel his smile in her mind. _'As much as a monster as I can be, senseless killing of innocents is counterproductive. And I would rather get more information about those troops that tried to kill me. They are related to your group somehow. Indirect, but related.'_

"They were from Factory. I think they are the ones that take the witches after we capture them," Robin said finally, her voice even softer than normal. She felt naked, unprotected under her covers.

_'Who are you people?'_ he asked.

"We are hunters of witches. Our... group is called STN-J," the very young and frightened hunter said.

_'STN-J? That is an abbreviation, something your people of this world like to do so much.'_ There was a long pause. _'How is the STN-J connected to this Factory.' _The man seemed to be tasting the ideas.

"I am not sure," she replied.

_'I am very accomplished at detecting falsehoods, Robin. That was the one free lie that I will allow. I would_ hate _to have anything happen to you... or your friend. The truth, now.'_

Robin frowned. How many powers did he have? What sort of witch was he?

_'I already told you that I am not a witch. I am a Psion, of the mind unchained and unfettered. My power comes from within me, not from any devil, demon or god.' _His smile could once again be felt. _'I was trained from a very young age, my mind awakened to its possibilities. I chose the Way that I travel, where my powers will grow. Something I could show you. But that was about myself, not about the question I asked.'_

The young hunter was starting to find that the mind reading was very, very unnerving. "Factory and STN-J are both controlled by Takuma Zaizen."

"There is more to it than that, isn't there?" a soft voice said from across the room.

The pyrokinetic was both relieved and terrified. She now knew where he was and how terribly close he was. "Yes, but it is nothing that concerns you."

"Now that is a truth. Why does this Zaizen send his hunters after me?" he asked intently, his accent still thick, though Robin's was not really that much better.

"To protect people from witches? To gain power? For his hatred of witches?" she said aloud finally. "I am not sure exactly."

"Mostly the truth, though I suspect that you have your guesses. How do I get him to back off? I have more important things to do here than start a war between us."

Robin was finally starting to see a little of him. Who was this strange man that could be so violent, so terrible?

"Ah, forgive me. My name is Beralix," he said in response to her mentally voiced question. "But I would rather discuss how to make this Zaizen leave me alone."

"I do not know," Robin replied truthfully.

"We'll just have to figure that out then, won't we?" The Psion's eyes flashed brilliant green in the darkness.

-

"Good morning, Robin!" Karasuma said with a smile.

Robin nodded, giving a small bow of greeting. She continued past the main office area and then the Chief's desk. She looked over at Zaizen's office door above the conference area. "Is Mr. Zaizen in?" she asked softly.

Kosaka just glared for a moment. "He said he would be in shortly."

She nodded and glided over to her desk, then after fidgeting she disappeared down towards the restrooms.

Michael's eyes turned towards the new hunter, but he continued to type as if he were not distracted. Sakaki yawned and started in on his own research on the witch they were currently hunting.

Doujima walked in just a while later. "Hello!" She thumped into her own seat and booted up her computer as she set her coffee cup from the local bistro down.

"Ms. Doujima? What an unusual occurrence," Kosaka said. "You are nearly on time. I might have a coronary if this became a normal situation."

The Chief's office assistant, Shohei Hattori, had the good sense to hide his smile behind a cough.

"Hey! I'm not that bad! I even blew off my date last night to show up to the scene!" the vapid blonde exclaimed.

In Zaizen's office, Robin stood behind his desk, her face serious and grim as she looked at a picture on it. She reached for a piece of paper and a pen.

Amon walked in the office, pulling out a sheaf of papers from the inside of his dark trench-coat. He gestured everyone to follow him to the conference room. "Doujima, you have the local library. Michael, I want you to hack into the video records of all the security cameras at all the libraries in the city," he said coolly.

"What are we going to do?" Sakaki asked, even as Karasuma narrowed her eyes in thought as she silently agreed with the direction of the question. They were all taking notes as they prepared for the next part of this investigation.

"We are going to hit the streets in the area the target was living. Hit all the shops for what he's buying, selling or even _thinking_ about buying or selling. We-" Amon was suddenly interrupted as the door to Zaizen's office exploded outwards in a shriek of disintergrating glass. Even he was momentarily stunned as Robin walked out through the remains, up above them on the second level.

"This is a warning. Your _only_ warning. Leave me alone!" she said, her voice distorted. An unusual accent shaped her words, her eyes cold and unwavering.

Then, as if a switch was thrown, her features shifted to confusion as she staggered up against the door frame, ripping her blouse's shoulder. "Wha-? What is going on?" She looked around, taking in her surroundings. "I am at the office?"

"Robin! Explain!" Amon snapped out, even as his pistol was leveled at her.

"The witch had followed me home. He... confronted me, asked me questions. He wanted us to leave him alone. He... warned me that it would be war if we did not do so," Robin said softly. "Then he knocked me out somehow. And then I woke up here."

"But you showed up over half an hour ago," Karasuma said. She gulped suddenly even as she kept her pistol on the hunter in the shattered door.

"He was able to take over her somehow. A very rare Craft, to jump bodies," Amon said as he put away his gun.

"His Craft... He is unknown, different. He called himself a _Psion_. Not a witch." Robin looked slightly scared.

"Psion? So he's psychic? That seems a little, um, offensive for a mind reader," Doujima said, eyes wide in shock.

"He is more than just psychic. He said is he is fully awakened. He may be capable of many different things, not just the more elemental powers of most witches," Karasuma said. A meta-psychic.

"So he just waltzed in here _in_ Robin's body? That's a security nightmare!" the Chief almost shouted out. Could they do anything to block that?

The security doorway slid open, admitting Zaizen into the conference room. His eyes narrowed. "What is going on?"

Sakaki winced. This wasn't going to sound good no matter what way they tried to explain it. Amon cut it short with a quick explanation to bring him up to speed.

Mr. Zaizen stood at the end of the table, looking upset. "Is there anything we can do against this disaster?"

"We don't have the right tools to defend against this," Amon admitted finally. "He's very dangerous. But..."

"He doesn't want to fight us," Robin said softly.

"We are not going to kow-tow to his threats!" Zaizen shouted as he slammed his hands down.

"You know, I hate to say this, but he's only defended himself when attacked," Sakaki interjected ruefully. "I mean, it's not like we've had weird or dead bodies showing up in his area."

Michael frowned, even as he started typing furiously. "No, nothing strange at all until those guys from the Factory showed up. No unusual deaths or attacks. Heck, he even warned Amon and Robin away after our first capture attempt."

"Fine. We'll watch for him and if he steps over the line, we'll be better prepared. I'm going to contact headquarters, though I am loathe to ask for help in this manner," the STN-J's boss said. The older man frowned, then turned to the chief. "We need to upgrade our security as best as possible."

"One thing, Mr. Zaizen?" Michael called out as he continued to type. "When he was in Robin's body, there is no way that he could have physically gotten into your office from the hallway she disappeared into." He had a security camera feed that showed her entering the women's restroom on his screen.

"Oh?"

"So I think we can add psychoportation onto his list of abilities." The hacker looked up from his computers.

"He said he was trained from an early age, to tap into his full ability." She frowned in thought. He had also offered to teach her. Was it a ruse? Or just temptation?

But she didn't want to depend on the stupid glasses that Amon wanted her to use.

-

It was late evening when Robin wearily opened the door to the apartment that she shared with with Touko Masaki. Her roommate looked up, a small smile of greeting. "I heard that you had an exciting day."

Robin nodded, even as she removed her shoes. "Yes, it has." She suddenly narrowed her eyes in thought. "But how did you know?"

"Oh, my father called this afternoon. He wanted to make sure I was fine," she replied airily. "He was pretty worried, actually."

"Your father?" she asked. She felt a yawning pit that she seemed to be perched on the edge of, like this event could be earth-shattering.

"You didn't know? Takuma Zaizen is my father. He's always so busy and we really aren't _that_ close." She smiled softly. "How about something special for supper?"

"That would be nice," Robin replied, her heart hammering in her chest. Zaizen had put her with his own daughter for some reason. Did he suspect that Solomon had sent her to spy on him? She swallowed nervously.

-

The next week was fairly uneventful, if you were a hunter that sought to capture dangerous witches. Amon was still demanding that Robin use her glasses. She just hated the feeling as her eyesight worsened.

Would it get even worse or better the more her powers matured? Her newly increased abilities while using her glasses were useful, she had to admit. But... she so hated the glasses.

That was when she heard a tapping on her window. Curious, she pulled the drape back to see an irregular crystal with, of all things, a sticky note on it that said 'touch me.' As she was not on the bottom floor, it was quite curious how the thing was on her window sill. She could sense that it was a Craft... somehow. But it didn't appear to be threatening. She opened her window and touched the crystal with one finger.

_'Now isn't that better than breaking into your house?'_ Beralix sent mentally.

The chunk of crystal flew off suddenly, disappearing into the bushes down below.

_'How very strange. Though as a Craft, I should be used to strange,'_ Robin replied back through the link. She could feel the link, if not the direction of the person that she was chatting with. _'What was that thing?'_ She closed her window.

_'A psionic imprintation upon a crystal matrix. Your witchly equivalent would be a familiar, though it really is very different. So, Robin, I see your STN-J has quit actively hunting me.'_

She nodded eve as she sat down. _'Your threats were very convincing.'_

_'I'm so very, very sorry that I had to use threats, but it seems your employer only understands force... and more force,' _was his sardonic rebuttal. _'Even so, I was wondering if you had considered my offer? You could do so much more than just fire, I'm sure.'_

She started lighting candles, feeling her sight dim and grow uncertain. _'Could you help my eyes from weakening when I use my Craft?'_

_'Perhaps. You may have to unlearn years of training, of forcing your control over fire to its level to do so.'_ There was a long pause, then he resumed with, _'You will have to convince your team mates that your loss of focus is because you are stretching your abilities. And you will have to learn part of the Way, even if it is not entirely like your own. But the meditation will allow you follow your own strengths... and not force your body to do things it was not really meant to do.'_

_'Interesting. And you can do all of this from so far away?' _she asked as she lighted another candle.

She could hear his mental chuckle. _'No. While my mind is good, it isn't quite that good. You will have to come to me... and lose your watchers.'_

The candle flared a second. _'Watchers?' _It was almost a whisper.

_'You didn't know? You have a small group of people watching you at your home. And they watch you, not your friend. They carry the guns your people so love to use. Though their bullets are very unusual, being carved with runes.' _She could hear the impish humor in his thoughts. _'Crafted, I would guess.'_

_'Hunters... in case I become a witch,' _she murmured softly. She had to fight off a chill of terror. And Crafted bullets? But she was a _hunter_, not a witch.

_'I guess they don't trust you very much for some reason. What is that saying? With friends like this, who needs enemies. Strangely, that saying exists in one form or another anywhere I've traveled.'_

_'I want to be stronger. Strong enough to defend myself.'_

_'That seems very much possible.'_

Robin stood up, quenching the candles carefully. It was not much later that day before she headed out and into the city, easily losing her followers. Her Vespa disappeared down a small alley that their cars could not even hope to enter. She was in a bad section of the city that she remembered was called the Walled City because it was so poor that everyone left it to itself.

As she was getting off her Vespa to lock it up, Robin happened to look up to see an old woman in a wheelchair watching her. The woman had a faintly disapproving look, but turned and slowly rolled out of sight. She took off her helmet and walked down the alley and through a gate. The tight area was dark, with only a faint light above to say the sky even existed.

A rickety sewer grate led her further down as she followed the mental voice's instructions. She was led further and further down, until she came to a camp set up in the sewers. She looked around, slightly confused.

"I've lived in worse. And I've lived through worse, too." Beralix stepped out of the shadows, even as his crystal flew into his hands. "Let me be up front, what we are going to do is going to be very draining, almost painful. But under my guidance, you will hopefully expand your abilities in a less destructive manner to yourself." He slipped the crystal into a pouch on his belt.

"I am not afraid of pain."

"No, I'd say you have many other things that you are afraid of, don't you?"

She glared at him a moment, but then sat in front of him at his gesture. Cupping her face, a deep look of concentration overtook him even as Robin gasped softly.

-

The door jingled as Robin used her key to unlock the door to the apartment she shared with Touko much later. "I'm home!" she called out softly.

"Oh, welcome back! You look wiped out. Tough day at work?" Touko asked from the living room.

"It was my day off," Robin said with a wan smile. "Just a head break."

"A headache, you mean?" her roomie asked.

"I- Yes." The young Craft looked over the apartment even as she rubbed her eyes. "I think I will rest now."

"Did you want to go over to Harry's?" Touko asked as she moved back to the living room.

"Not today," was the reply. Robin closed the door to her room and sat on a chair. She looked at the candles around her room. She set one on fire, then made the flame leap from candle to candle. A soft smile adorned her lips, as her eyes did not lose focus. She did note to herself, that her pyrokinesis seemed very diminished.

Reaching mentally into her mind, she opened a drawer. She felt a small tingle in her eyes, seeing the soft shade of her Craft around the candles. The imprint of her power was fading, but still easily visible to her basic sight. Beralix had suggested that she look at figuring out direct sensory powers like this, as it may help with her problem. He had a theory that she was pulling her energy from her body unevenly, causing her deteriorating visual problems.

So learning to control energy into her eyes would make her more aware of those energies, which would allow her to avoid that problem in the future.

The young hunter shivered, feeling through her mind. She had many drawers to go through, different ways of accessing her powers. The best analogy Beralix had was that she was forcing her preconceptions of her powers to shape how she thought she should have accessed them, instead of flowing or following her mental pathways correctly.

A square peg for a round hole, in essence.

_'That poor girl. They really work her too hard,'_ Touko seemed to say. _'Should I make noodles or soup?'_

Robin spun towards the door, only to realize that it was still shut. She was hearing Touko's inner monologue from her banging around in the kitchen. It was like someone who was nearly blind all of a sudden being able to see clear color.

She swallowed nervously, carefully extinguishing the candles. This was going to take some getting used to.

-

Robin looked around the destitute vagrants, living in cardboard boxes in a very grim area of town. They were back down here, looking for a mysterious witch that could, possibly, cause terror within his target. Sakaki and Amon had just barely stopped another vagrant from throwing himself into traffic. She took a quiet, deep breath and closed her eyes. This was almost the opposite of what she had been accidentally doing before, channeling her Craft into her eyes to enhance what she could. So instead of weakening her eyes to power her fire Craft, she was enhancing her vision to see auras again.

To sense a Craft or a witch more easily. She hoped. She also hoped that she had masked the manifestation of her new Craft.

Karasuma opened a cardboard box 'home' that Sakaki and Doujima had pointed out. "I thought you said there were photos?" The box was mostly bare of anything more than a blanket.

"But there was!" Sakaki exclaimed. Suddenly, a scent of olives drifted into the area. The young hunter started trembling. This would be the final straw. The Chief would just fire him!

"There! He's the one doing it!" Robin suddenly said, pointing at the stout vagrant that had been talking to Sakaki just a minute ago.

Amon blinked. "What?"

"He's the witch," she said softly.

"No!" the homeless man exclaimed, suddenly terrified. "How did you figure it out?" Around the area, other homeless people were starting to murmur in agitation.

Amon and Karasum pulled out there pistols. It took Doujima a moment to do so herself. Sakaki was still shaking even as he crouched over to clutch his head in desperation.

"Leave. Him. Alone!" Robin demanded softly. With a woosh of displaced air, Sakaki suddenly relaxed.

"Cops! They are cops!" a vagrant in the back called out.

"Don't do it! Just give up peacibly!" Karasuma called out harshly.

"Ahhhhh!" yelled the vagrant witch finally. Other vagrants, homeless and dispossesed people starting screaming.

Robin's eyes flared again, trying to fight his Craft of emotion control, but it stopped before it could get to him.

The STN-J hunter's guns chuffed, spitting out ORBO bullets. In just moments, the witch collapsed while spinning, drool leaking from his slackly opened jaw. Sakaki finally had his gun out finally, but took out his terminal handset to scan the downed witch. "His brain activity is below the threshold. I guess we need to call the Factory for a pickup." His face twisted in anger as he stood up.

Amon walked up, looking at the witch in apparent disdain. "You should not feel any regret over the deaths he caused. He was just another witch, playing God with people's lives." With that, the hunter turned and walked to his car.

Robin stared at his back, hands in the pocket of her dark overcoat. Was this why Amon did not trust her?

-

It was a few weeks later, while Robin was still adjusting to her changed Craft. But she was getting there. Beralix was still tutoring herself through telepathy. What had once been strange and fearful... had become merely normal. Her eyes no longer weakened and even Amon had noted that she was less likely to lose control of her flames. She had even figured out how to quench the fires she started on her own. She had thought it was probably because she actually understood her powers a bit better and that she was not totally focused on the fire aspect.

Though she'd been surprised to discover that Beralix had a very scattered education. Even her rudimentry science education was far in advance of his own. He still seemed surprised at what normal humans had accomplished with just tools and engineering.

Robin dragged herself into the present, smiling at the at the priest. It was a morning ritual as she headed over to the altar for morning prayer. She cleared her thoughts and focused on her devotions, feeling lighter for doing so. She spent a little while and then took herself out into the bright morning light. It was sucha beautiful day.

She was walking down the path in the park on her way to Touko's apartment when she saw the girl painting the lake scene. Her easels and canvas was set up just off the pathway, her long hair drifting in the slight breeze.

"It's very beautiful," Robin commented, to let the girl know she was there behind her on the path. She was curious to weigh the girl's response. It was very enlightening to have a better grasp about how people really felt about you. She had even discovered that Amon was just very, very wary of her for some reason.

"Yes, it is. I try to capture the purity of God's work," the girl said, not taking her eyes off the view while she painted.

Something very buried in the girl's voice raised the hackles on Robin. It was only a hunch, her Craft enhancing her intuition to a startling degree when people tried to lie to her. "Um, that is a moving thing to say," the hunter replied inanely, trying to hide her shock. She hastily bobbed her head and continued walking.

-

It was later that day that Robin was roped into reading up on old, 'cold' cases. These were the cases where the STN-J thought might be caused by witches, but did not have enough evidence to even be sure of that. She was working through the list when she started reading more into the case. It showed a familiar park that she had been traveling through for weeks to go to the church.

Karasuma spoke up as she read over Robin's shoulder, "Oh, that case? Three people who were found killed by an unknown instrument or instrument. Pretty brutal."

"This says there were no clues or motives." For some reason, the painter on the shore of the lake drifted into her mind. Robin frowned.

"Say? How about we go over there after we grab lunch?" Karasuma said suddenly, looking much less stern than she normally did.

"Sure," the young Craft user replied.

"Michael! We are going to be out checking up on this case. Let Amon know," the older agent told the computer hacker on the other side of the office area.

"Sure!"

-

Miho Karasuma slid into one of the booth seats at Harry's, across from Robin. Master, the owner of the place, waved at them to let them know he would be over shortly. "So, Robin? How are your eyes?" the older woman asked. She unbuttoned her suit jacket, making herself look slightly less official and office-like.

"Fine, thank you. I figured out that I was drawing life energy from my eyes to fuel my craft. Once I figured that out, I worked on making sure I didn't do that accidentally." Robin gave a soft smile. On a hunch, she listened very, very closely to the slightly older hunter.

"That must have been nice. You'll have to teach me how to sense your _ki _like that," Miho responded with seeming ease, as if she were talking about the weather.

Robin failed to quite stop her surprise from showing. That was actually far, far more important to the other hunter than Miho was trying to let on. So something about her powers? "Um, sure." She turned to look out the window and the bright sunlight outside, quickly trying to rack her brain for something to change the subject of the conversation. "So why does Amon not... have me go with him?" It had been a question she had been wondering.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask that," the older girl said with a small smile. "I'm not totally sure. But I think it has to do with your failure to control your Craft." Master put a tea in front of her, which she smiled in thanks to him.

"But I have much better control now," Robin protested as she started to pour some milk into her coffee that had just been put in front of her.

"True, but it is hard for people to gain his trust. Ever since his last partner went rogue." Karasuma stirred her coffee for a moment.

"The agent I replaced?" the young girl said with a frown.

"Yes. The hunter that became a witch."

-

Robin shaded her eyes in the bright sunlight of the park. Karasuma was pulling on her gloves behind her. The older agent was explaining, "This is the place of the first murder." She gestured at an area that wasn't directly visible right off the path, behind some bushes. "There was no sign of a struggle, though he was cut many times."

"So he was either restrained so he couldn't react... or he was attacked so quickly that he did not have time," Robin mused.

Karasuma nodded even as she rebuttoned up her jacket, making her look severe. "There is that."

It was only a few minutes later that they came upon a horrid mess, trash scattered around and dead ravens. Robin looked wide-eyed. "The witch did this."

"I'm going to try and get an impression," the older woman said, carefully stripping a glove off to allow her to more easily use her touch. She focused, allowing the impression in the dead birds into her psyche. "It's a girl. Now we have a target. Finally!"

The young craft frowned in thought. "Why would she attack the birds? It seems a... strange thing to show her power so visibly on."

"I doubt it. This might not have even been reported. The groundskeeper would have chalked it up to kids with slings, I bet," the older Hunter said as she pursed her lips.

"Still, she must have a reason. A motive." The young woman seemed troubled.

"I'm calling this in. She's dangerous, so we should have backup."

It was only half an hour later when Amon and Sakaki showed up. Amon pulled his pistol out, taking in the enviorment. "You know who the witch is?"

"We think we have narrowed it down to a young girl that paints here in the park," Karasuma said even as she pulled her own service pistol, verifying that the ORBO rounds were ready.

Robin frowned. "She is... disturbed. She has problems." How could she effectively tell them that she seemed manic and insane? She just didn't have the proper words in Japanese to explain it easily.

"We'll let the Factory handle that," Amon said, even as he started to move with panther silence into the park.

Robin frowned. A very strange emotion was hidden by him in that phrase. Something of deep distrust, fear and curiousity of the unknown. She shook that off, gliding into the woods between Sakaki and Karasuma who had pulled out their own pistols.

The suspected witch was spotted off in the distance, painting another scene. In the trees above her, Ravens were watching intently.

Amon and Sakaki were focused on the girl and the area around her. One of the crows suddenly cawed loudly. The girl stood up, causing the agents to pause. She started murmurring something. Finally it become audible. "-unclean-unclean-_unclean-_**unclean-UNCLEAN!**" she yelled, even as something struck the raven, killing it in a spray of feathers.

"Well, that confirms that," Sakaki called out jocularly. Just a bit too loudly, it seemed.

Robin could see her starting to concentrate, eyes wide and pupils dilated. With a burst of adrenaline, she tackled the youngest male hunter to the ground, rolling behind cover.

"Unclean-unclean-unclean-unclea-" she chanted in a high, disturbing voice even as telekinetic bolts of force were slicing small divots into the bark of the tree that Robin and Sakaki were hiding behind.

Amon dropped his pistol from ready to firing, snapping off several shots which were deflected by the telekinetic witch who was still chanting. He dove to side and behind his own tree.

Karasumi snapped off several shots from behind cover, to no better effect. "Damn it. She's got us pinned down."

A glint of fire lit up in Robin's eyes, even as a small burst of fire appeared in the air near the unbalanced witch, startling her into a semblance of rationality.

"Please stop. We do not want to hurt you. Only to stop you hurting others," Robin called out even as she walked out from behind cover.

The witch screamed, even as small burst of wavering air deflected her attacks. Beads of sweat were starting to drip down the youngest hunter's forehead. With a grimace, she set the young girl's arm on fire, causing her to start screaming.

That was when ORBO plastic bullets started to strike the young artist. Amon's bullets were joined with Sakaki and Karasuma shooting. Karasuma was running forward to the disabled witch when the fire just went out, like someone had pulled the plug on a lamp.

"She wouldn't stop," Robin sad sadly. "It was like she was broken."

The older woman nodded, even as she holstered her custom weapon. "Yes, she was probably insane."

The young girl ducked her head, then lifted her eyes up resolutely to look at Amon directly. "Will she get help from the Factory?"

It was a mere flicker of deciet, hidden behind an impassive mask that betrayed him. "I don't know."


End file.
